Chapter 14

Chapter 14

My consciousness drifted through the darkness, that cloying sweet fragrance lingering all around me.

In my daze, I slipped into a strange dream.

In the dream, I found myself outside the window of a farmhouse.

Inside the house, someone seemed to be giving birth.

The silhouette of the woman in labor was cast against the window. Her belly was grotesquely huge.

Unease crept over me. Then her screams began to reach me, one after another, each louder than the last.

At that moment, I vaguely heard people talking.

Wanting to hear more clearly, I edged closer to the window.

But the woman suddenly let out a piercing shriek, and a spray of bright red liquid splattered across the window with a wet splat!

I spun around instinctively, ready to run, only to see a line of people carrying a coffin past the doorway.

For one split second, I felt as if Jiang Shuang was inside that coffin. Panicked, I chased after it.

But the moment I reached the front door, it changed.

With one step, I had entered the birthing room from before. The stench of blood instantly filled my nose.

Against my will, my gaze turned toward the spot where the woman in labor had been lying.

A woman was sitting there. She looked somewhat like an elder relative of Jiang Shuang’s, yet also somewhat like the postpartum woman we had seen at the inn.

She sat cross-legged on the bed, a floral quilt draped over her.

Her pitch-black eyes stared at me without moving.

I watched as she slowly raised both hands, formed the Lotus Mudra, and placed them overlapping in front of her chest.

Then the floral quilt covering her body slowly slid down, revealing a blood-red hole in her belly.

At last, I could move. I still wanted to find Jiang Shuang, so I turned and ran out.

But when I opened the door again, the birthing room was still outside.

It was still that same woman, still in that same posture.

Only the blood-red hole in her belly was growing larger and larger, and something seemed to be faintly writhing inside it.

My scalp went numb at the sight, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to escape that room.

Anger began to rise in me, and my reason gradually returned.

I realized I had to wake up. Something must have happened to Jiang Shuang.

Just as I was struggling with all my might, I suddenly smelled sandalwood incense.

Following that scent, I ran toward the corner of the room. Darkness instantly swallowed me, and my eyes flew open!

Someone was standing in front of me, holding a bundle of incense sticks.

To my surprise, it was the innkeeper’s wife.

The sandalwood scent I had smelled came from the incense she had lit.

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out. It seemed she couldn’t talk.

I quickly got to my feet and followed her gaze. When I turned, I saw the door to Jiang Shuang’s room hanging wide open, the inside in complete disarray.

Jiang Shuang was gone. Those people had taken her!

“Where did they go?”

I grabbed the woman and demanded an answer, but she only shook her head.

I didn’t dare waste another second and rushed outside.

As I passed Zhang Qing’s room, I saw that his door was open too. Zhang Qing had been tied up like a rice dumpling and thrown onto the floor.

“Are you okay?” I charged into the room and started untying him.

“They took Jiang Shuang! Everyone in this village is insane!”

Zhang Qing didn’t look injured, but he was extremely agitated. “I heard something and went out to check, and they attacked me!”

“I also heard them say they were going to put Jiang Shuang into a coffin. They said she was the only one missing, and once they had her, the Five Ghosts Fortune-Gathering Array would be complete…”

“I understand. Go find somewhere safe to hide, then call the police as soon as you can!”